Two and a Half Men had been floundering in recent years. The dismissal of Charlie Sheen had thrown the show into jeopardy which it only just recovered from, but what remained was a very dry, over the top show that struggled for ratings week after week, and failed it's big attempts at humour. So it's suiting that we got a finale that displayed just how far Two and a Half Men had fallen.
This episode revolved around the mystery of Charlie's death as Alan realises he only has Rose's word that Charlie actually died. This builds up a lot of suspense for the viewer that Charlie may actually return to the show, so what follows is a 40 minute build up to his return which the episode, never delivers!
The main humour is at the standard of the rest of the Kutcher years, however there are the occasional moments of classic Two and a Half Men that sneak into the script, making this one of the better episodes in the Kutcher years, but it's still not something I want to watch again!
There is endless meta-humour here and it's actually somewhat funny, the characters turning and facing the audience after a line like "I can't believe you've made so much money with such stupid jokes", is one of the episode's better gags, and when the detective played by Arnold Schwarzenegger (really bizarre cameo!) asks if Charlie tried Anger Management, and Alan replies "Yeah, but it didn't work out!", is a line I quite enjoyed.
But I think the most offensive thing about this episode is the disappointing build up to Charlie Sheen, which was obviously just done to improve ratings, but instead ending up being considered the series worst episode (well, to the people of IMDb anyway!)
What I've hated about the recent series is the constant disappearance of the cast. Look at the track record, after Charlie was killed off, Jake vanished, Evelyn vanished, Rose vanished, Judith vanished, Berta vanished, Herb vanished, Gorden vanished, and they were all replaced with paper-thin characters with actors who couldn't act if they were in a Michael Bay film.
The finale brings back most of these characters, but only for fleeting cameo roles. Rose, despite being the main antagonist and the cause of the story, gets about 5 minutes of screen-time before walking out the door, yes, walking out the door, claiming jumping over the deck, would be "silly"! (???)
Evelyn gets a little more time, but she leaves with Rose, vanishing from the story, Judith gets a fleeting blink and you'll miss it cameo, and Herb is never seen at all. Berta is just there, there's no reason for her involvement she just walks on occasionally. Jake returns with $2.5 Million before retuning to his wife and kids (WHAT?!), and even the new series regular Jenny gets a two minute cameo before disappearing. But the cameos of Chealsea, Mia, Kandi and Lyndsey were nice.
Oh, and what about that animated sequence, what the hell was that?! Why would Chuck Lorre think that was a good idea? Did he realise that no matter what happened, the series was doomed and start messing with the audience?
So... Overall, despite the recent years being a rather disappointing few years for the show, I am going to miss it. Two and a Half Men will be remembered for a long time, after all, it's the reason the Big Bang Theory, Mike and Molly and Mom were all made, three very successful sitcoms under the control of Chuck Lorre. Just as long as the latter two end at series 8, because judging by Two and a Half Men and the Big Bang Theory's ninth seasons, that's where everything goes wrong.
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